~ Many helpful hints on living your life more successfully.

Guiding principles for success in life.

Tom Byers, the director of the Mayfield Fellows Program has five essentials for the successful person to use on a daily basis. All I had was his list, but it seemed like a good source for generating good life habits.

1. Show up on time.

2. Be nice to people.

3. Do what you say you’ll do.

4. Deliver more than you promise.

5. Work with enthusiasm and passion.

These are good ideas, and everyone would agree, but my problem with such lists is that they vanish from my mind when the appropriate time comes to take action. What is needed is specific actions to apply at triggered times. So what is provided here is a simple habit for each of those five that can be stimulated by a common life event. Thus, after a while those particular habits will be automatic and others might be inserted into the basic list.

1. Show up on time. – The trigger event for showing up on time is the beginning of the departure time when preparations must be started.

2. Be nice to people. – When you encounter someone give a friendly greeting, say something positive about some external event and ask a specific question as to how they are doing.

3. Do what you say you’ll do. – The trigger for is to start working on the item at the very first opportunity, “Well begun is half done,” and half done is, well, half done and you can see clearly what needs to be done to finish.

4. Deliver more than you promise. – The trigger for this is when expectations are high and it’s then to keep your promises well within what you are certain you can deliver.

5. Work with enthusiasm and passion. – Enthusiasm comes from working toward a worthy goal, so place reminders of the end product and its sub-routines clearly in sight. “Out of sight is out of mind.” So … “keep your goals in sight and in mind.”